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Volume IV. No. 4 October 1944

Notes of Chesapeake Bay Skipjacks, Page 269

Notes on Chesapeake Bay Skipjacks
BY HOWARD I. CHAPELLE
THE lack of satisfactory written records that would permit tracing
the history or the development of an American type of small com­mercial
sailing craft is illustrated in the case of the Chesapeake Bay
Skipjack. The published information is both scanty and inaccurate; and
there seems to have been very little mention of the type in magazine or
newspaper articles prior to 1910. Most of the descriptive and historical
material has appeared in the last twenty years. In order to fill some of the
serious gaps in published information on this curious type of work boat
these notes were prepared.
The sources are, of necessity, the memory of living men, usually of lit­tle
education. The danger of accepting statements made from memory is
obvious; therefore every possible effort was made to check one statement
against another and to compare recollections of the more intelligent indi­viduals.
The writer, in operating a small shipyard at Cambridge, Mary­land,
had an excellent opportunity to measure the hulls while they were
on the marine railway and to talk to owners and masters. It was found that
when a number of owners, masters, and carpenters were gathered in the
yard at noontime, or after quitting time in the evening, the conversation
could be steered toward recollections of old boats, builders and the sailing
experiences of the men present. Often arguments started, in which anum­ber
of things would be discussed which would rarely have been discovered
by direct questioning. This method of checking statements overcame
many of the difficulties of deciding on the accuracy of such information as
could be gathered. In general, the owners and masters of the boats were
intelligent, and this was markedly true of the older boat carpenters, even
though these men lacked formal education.
Perhaps the first point discovered was that in the vicinity of Cambridge
(in the area extending from Oxford to Deal's Island at least) the word
'skipjack' is not used as a name for the type, but rather for the rig having a
269

Articles include: The Trinity House Ship Models by W. R. Chaplin; Notes on Chesapeake Bay Skipjacks by Howard I. Chapelle; The United States Mail Steamer George Law by Cedric Redgely-Nevitt; and Loss of the Malleville by Joanna C. Colcord. This issue also includes Documents, Book Reviews, and the complete Index for Volume 4.

Notes on Chesapeake Bay Skipjacks
BY HOWARD I. CHAPELLE
THE lack of satisfactory written records that would permit tracing
the history or the development of an American type of small com­mercial
sailing craft is illustrated in the case of the Chesapeake Bay
Skipjack. The published information is both scanty and inaccurate; and
there seems to have been very little mention of the type in magazine or
newspaper articles prior to 1910. Most of the descriptive and historical
material has appeared in the last twenty years. In order to fill some of the
serious gaps in published information on this curious type of work boat
these notes were prepared.
The sources are, of necessity, the memory of living men, usually of lit­tle
education. The danger of accepting statements made from memory is
obvious; therefore every possible effort was made to check one statement
against another and to compare recollections of the more intelligent indi­viduals.
The writer, in operating a small shipyard at Cambridge, Mary­land,
had an excellent opportunity to measure the hulls while they were
on the marine railway and to talk to owners and masters. It was found that
when a number of owners, masters, and carpenters were gathered in the
yard at noontime, or after quitting time in the evening, the conversation
could be steered toward recollections of old boats, builders and the sailing
experiences of the men present. Often arguments started, in which anum­ber
of things would be discussed which would rarely have been discovered
by direct questioning. This method of checking statements overcame
many of the difficulties of deciding on the accuracy of such information as
could be gathered. In general, the owners and masters of the boats were
intelligent, and this was markedly true of the older boat carpenters, even
though these men lacked formal education.
Perhaps the first point discovered was that in the vicinity of Cambridge
(in the area extending from Oxford to Deal's Island at least) the word
'skipjack' is not used as a name for the type, but rather for the rig having a
269